EDITORIAL Anyone who thought that last week’s annual conference of Leasehold Advisory Service, a quango paid for out of taxpayers’ money, would be a gathering of ordinary leaseholders, swapping ideas and experiences of managing their apartment blocks, would have been sadly deluded. It was, in fact, a very expensive trade show filled with representatives from […]

Ground rent scandals

– Urgent issue for MPs of parliamentary group on leasehold next month – Onerous lease terms in taxpayer-aided Help To Buy home purchases – Ground rents doubling every 10 years from plc housebuilder The disgraceful and increasingly widespread scandal of plc housebuilders selling leasehold houses is reported in The Guardian today. It can be read here The […]

It is reported in the Liverpool Echo that solicitor Liam McEleavey, of Gabriel Solicitors, has been jailed for three years three months for stealing £280,000. A solicitor in Gabriel Solicitors, a firm of Taylor Wimpey recommended solicitors – which, needless to say, failed to alert purchasers of predatory terms in the leases – has been […]

Another page on leasehold in the Financial Times last Saturday, and it is not good reading for the developers, freehold investors and leasehold sector hangers-on. It can be read here Merryn Somerset Webb, the newspapers investment columnist, looks at this form of tenure and blows loud raspberry. It is the kind of article that the […]

Grenfell cladding

The Times today reports how leaseholders are facing “gargantuan” bills for fire marshals and Grenfell cladding removal from the likes of Vincent Tchenguiz and Will Astor. Up to a 100 private blocks of flats are affected, it claims. “The situation has echoes of a leasehold scandal this year when construction companies sold houses with ground […]

We are all waiting for Sajid Javid The All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform met on December 6 at Westminster. Overshadowing all was the conclusion of Communities Secretary Sajid Javid’s report on “Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market”: the review that he announced in the summer, that concluded in September, into […]

When leaseholders unite …

LKP chair Martin Boyd and Sir Peter Bottomley attended a meeting at Number 10 yesterday to urge government to overturn its flawed statutory instrument to reform recognised tenants’ associations. The MHCLG announced changes in October and made the existing arrangements even worse for leaseholders. The key hurdle faced by leaseholders is to contact their leasehold-owning […]

Disgraceful …

The Commons debate on leasehold reform took place after the intervention of LKP patrons Jim Fitzpatrick and Sir Peter Bottomley. The debate can be seen here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/fc53bd87-8abf-4986-b7ce-6a7a488b8cfc The debate can be read here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-12-20/debates/4F15110B-F6D5-4FA1-9154-536BD848130E/LeaseholdAndCommonholdReform The catalyst was the scandal of Taylor Wimpey selling homes between 2007-2011 with doubling ground rents and then selling the freeholds […]